Egg eggschange

Lots of news this week - we candled the eggs time and time again to try and work out if they were fertile. The general concensus was that all except one weren't fertile. However, the one which was a possibility also had a crack in it (albeit a very small one) and after many discussions we decided that this egg was probably bad as we couldn't see any movement going on inside. To cut a long story short, we have acquired some fertilised Aylesbury duck eggs (see piccie) from a breeder which we have sneakily swopped for the eggs which Dora was sitting on originally. Dora has continued to sit on the nest, none the wiser and now we've just got to be patient.

Dolly continues to be a stubborn so-and-so and has insisted that she lay her eggs in Dora's nest whether Dora is sitting on it or not. Dora, who is in a trance-like state whilst keeping her eggs warm, just sits resolutely, refusing to let Dolly get to her.

Daphne is definitely top bird now and has taken the lead since Dave's demise. Dolly now follows Daphne everywhere and if Daphne's preening then so is Dolly. Neither of the girls are wandering in the garden much now, prefering to stay near to the pond - not sure if this the memory of the fox at the far reaches of the garden or whether it's the lack of a male to protect them; probably a bit of both.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Here's Daphers making use of the available resources this morning. Dora's not keen on anyone else sitting in the duck house so Daphne's sitting on what must be a very uncomfortable conifer.

No news on the egg candling front yet, I'm afraid. We made a very amateurish attempt with the lounge lamp and a loo roll yesterday evening with no success (I'm sure the ducks had a laugh about this while our backs were turned!). However, we've ordered an extra bright torch off the internet now so once we have that we'll give it another go. No sign of the fox since Friday night, thank goodness, but we're stressing ourselves out checking we can see the ducks all the time. We put them to bed extra early yesterday despite their protests - Dolly in particular was not best pleased.

Evil Fox

Just had a visit from the evil fox about 30 minutes ago. He has obviously got the scent of the ducks now - fortunately I had just put the ducks away. Looks like we're going to have to put the ducks in well before dark. Mr 10-toer is fortifying the enclosure as I write... not going to sleep well tonight.

Sad News

Unfortunately I have some very sad news - Dave has gone missing, presumed taken by a fox. He was let out with the others this morning and went missing shortly afterwards. There's absolutely no trace of him, no feathers left or anything, and we've searched the garden (and neighbours) but the only explanation is that a fox has taken him. We're all absolutely gutted and can't believe that a fox has had the brass neck to take him in broad daylight. We're worried for the others now that a fox knows that there are ducks wandering about here, especially with some possible ducklings on the way. The females look lost without him and have been very quiet today, sitting close to the house and the pond. We're all going to miss him - let's hope his legacy is in Dora's nest.

Are ducklings on the way?

Well, Dora has been sitting on her nest for a week now and refuses to budge until her stomach gets the better of her. We've managed to have a look at the eggs and there were 7 in there yesterday which we marked with a black pen - this was after reading up on the internet that you should remove the subsequent eggs once the duck has started sitting so that you give the others a better chance. Today when I looked again there was another egg so I guiltily removed it from the nest, you wouldn't believe how warm it was! At the weekend we plan to candle the eggs to see which ones are fertile (if any). Here's hoping that at least 3 or 4 are fertile as I'm getting very excited at the thought of Dora bringing out her ducklings in a few weeks. Anyway here's a picture of some runner ducklings - perhaps Dora's will look like this (although she could be sitting on one of the other female's eggs). Will let you know what the candling reveals....

Eggciting News!!!

Dora has been sitting on 4 eggs for the last 3 days now, only getting up for a quick drink, food and a preen. Here's a picture of her looking very proud of her beautiful nest, every inch the protective mum. We're all hoping she sticks with it and that at least one of the eggs is fertilised so we can have some ducklings. Watch this space......

Dora, Dora, Dora The Explorer

Ok, so if you don't have a mini 10-toer you probably don't know who Dora The Explorer is and you haven't had to put up with her irritating voice and pregnant pauses, but in our house Dora The Explorer is often on TV, speaking Spanish and..... exploring. The theme tune, the title of this post, is equally annoying, reverberating around your head for hours after you've heard it. However, since one of our ducks is named after her we are all in the habit of singing this song to Dora the duck, somehow expecting her to know what we're on about. Dora doesn't care, any attention means that we must be about to give her food and she quacks back at us in the hope that we've got something tasty.

Dora is an apricot runner and the biggest character in our paddling of ducks. Permanently hungry, fearless, and very quick, Dora doesn't miss a trick, watching the back of the house for signs of any movement of us 10-toers through the window. She also has amazing hearing and if I clatter about in the kitchen or run the tap for any length of time she'll stand on the back step and quack loudly until I open the back door, knowing that I'll give in a throw her a bit of bread. Dora is also very partial to slugs and snails; only last weekend I watched in amazement as she gulped down a whole snail which you could see going down her neck (due to the snail's large size and her thin neck). Dora has also been known to catch frogs which she gets particularly excited about, running off to the other side of the garden with it so that she can keep it to herself, the other ducks in hot pursuit (well, Daphne and Dave trying really hard!). Needless to say we have managed to rescue most of the frogs that she's caught, I'm not sure even Dora could manage to swallow a whole one. Dora is also the only one of the ducks to take food from our hands and is the fastest duck in the west when it comes to 'who can get to the bread first' when throwing it to all of them. Often, Dave, Dolly and Daphne get bored with trying and head back to the pond when they realise that they're not going to get a look in whilst Dora's about. Dora might not have much in common with her Spanish counterpart but she's definitely the star of the show in our back garden (I know you're not supposed to have favourites but........)